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The NBA is reporting that former Los Alamos center Alex Kirk has been waived by the New York Knicks.

Kirk, who was traded Monday as part of a convoluted deal between the Cleveland Cavaliers, Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder, will now be looking for a new team.

The move by New York to waive Kirk and Lou Amundson, who also went to the Knicks in the trade, was expected. The Knicks have shown signs that, after a disastrous 5-32 2014-15 season, they're ready to cut salary and rebuild for next year.

Because the waiver occurred today, the Knicks don't owe any salary to Kirk, who had a non-guaranteed contract with Cleveland.

Former Los Alamos High School standout soccer player Andy Thoma will be turning pro very soon.
Thoma, who led Los Alamos to its first boys soccer title in nearly 25 years in 2010, was signed to a contract Monday by Major League Soccer — the league itself — guaranteeing him a spot on a MLS team for the 2015 season.
The announcement of his signing came in advance of the MLS’ SuperDraft.
Thoma was one of eight players coming out of college in fall 2014 to be guaranteed a MLS spot. Last month, it was announced Thoma had been invited to the league’s upcoming combine.
It is still expected that Thoma will be at the combine, which takes place Friday through Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
While at Los Alamos, Thoma was named the Class 4A Player of the Year following his senior year, in which the Hilltoppers pulled off three straight upsets at the state tournament to capture the 2010 title.
After his career at Los Alamos, Thoma joined with the University of Washington and was named an All-American fullback following the 2014 season. During his career, he was named to the All-Pac 12 team on multiple occasions.
Thoma and Washington advanced to the men’s soccer Sweet 16 last year.

Former Los Alamos basketball star Alex Kirk was traded to the New York Knicks Monday as part of a three-team deal between the Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and the team that originally signed Kirk, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
While it’s unclear what’s going to happen with Kirk, the rookie center, when he reaches the Big Apple, the Associated Press reported that he may be waived by the team today or Wednesday.
No word on any potential moves by New York had been announced as of press time today.
Motivating the move on New York’s part was a desire to clear salary cap space. The Knicks have a league-worst record 5-32 and are likely trying to find new free agent talent or preparing for this summer’s NBA draft.
Along with Kirk, New York also received Cleveland reserve Lou Amundson and a second round draft pick from the Cavaliers in 2019, as well as Lance Thomas from the Thunder.
Cleveland also traded off-guard Dion Waiters to Oklahoma City. In turn, Cleveland received guards JR Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks and a protected first round pick from Oklahoma City in this year’s draft.

NEW YORK (AP) — J.J. Watt found a unique way to make the 2014 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team.
Houston’s Watt was listed on all 50 ballots by a nationwide panel of media members who regularly cover the league, with 45 of the votes for defensive end and the other five for defensive tackle. So he actually was a first-team end and a second-team tackle in gaining his third straight selection.
“Everybody always says you try and make it so the other team can’t game plan you because they don’t know where you’re coming from,” Watt said. “I mean, half the time I have no clue where I’m coming from, so it makes it pretty tough for the other people, I think, and that’s the goal.”
No such confusion for New England’s Rob Gronkowski as the other unanimous pick. He grabbed all the votes for tight end.
“He’s, I think, when you say a kid playing the game, that’s him,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “He don’t care about anything, stats, if we’re up or down, he’s playing one way. He’s playing hard and you can tell he’s just having fun with his friends on the field.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The bowl trip is a holiday tradition for many college football fans. Take some time off around Christmas and New Year’s Day and go watch your favorite team play a big game. Maybe even the biggest game.
This season the supporters of the four teams playing in the first College Football Playoff are facing a choice about which trip to take: Semifinal or championship game?
Today, Oregon plays Florida State at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, and Alabama meets Ohio State at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The winners will play Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas, at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Fans of the Crimson Tide and Ducks get the benefit of games close to home. Neither Alabama nor Oregon will suffer from a lack of support in the semifinals. It’s a trickier call for Ohio State fans, who must make a cross-country trip. Seminoles supporters just traveled to see their team win a national title in Southern California last year, and many are hoping they made the right choice by skipping the semifinal trip.
“It was going to cost me as much as $1,000 to go with nobody I knew,” said Maxx Smith, a 21-year-old senior at Florida State. “There was no motivation to go.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Madison Bumgarner sat in the outfield alongside Jake Peavy before Game 7 of the World Series and told his teammate exactly what needed to happen: Tim Hudson would work a few innings and get the ball to Bumgarner, who would hand it off to the bullpen to finish the championship.
Peavy quickly offered his own prediction that Bumgarner would end it himself.
That’s exactly what MadBum did, following up a pair of World Series wins with a save at Kansas City to close out San Francisco’s third title in five years and cap a brilliant postseason that made him a household name — or, at the very least, a household nickname. He is the 2014 Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year.
“I was sitting in the outfield with Madison and he was asking me how I thought this game was going to play out,” Peavy recalled this month. “I said to him: ‘Madison, when you get the ball, you’re not coming out of the game. You’re the best guy we’ve got.’ ... He said, ‘Man, that’s exactly what I hoped you would say’ and exactly what he wanted. He just needed some confirmation, somebody to believe in him as well. I said, ‘Fight for that ball, man,’ and what he did will go down in the ages as the best ever.”

Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer in the Big Ten? It has a certain ring to it, like the glory days when Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes battled for control of the league.
That day is coming.
The 51-year-old Harbaugh, a star quarterback for the Wolverines in the mid-1980s, has signed a deal to become the new coach at Michigan, a person with knowledge of the discussions told The Associated Press late Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no announcement from the school or Harbaugh. He arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Monday night in plenty of time to make a Tuesday midday news conference for a “major” football announcement.
Harbaugh coached the 49ers to three straight NFC championship games. San Francisco lost the 2013 Super Bowl to a Baltimore Ravens team coached by his brother, John. After the 49ers slipped to 8-8 this season and missed the playoffs, he parted ways with the team Sunday in what both sides called a mutual decision.
A day later, his name was the buzz of the Big Ten.

Bear Bryant said offense sells tickets, and he was right. College football is enjoying immense popularity in an era of record scoring.
But is there too much of a good thing?
All that scoring caused this season’s average length of game to hit 3 hours, 23 minutes in late November, according to the NCAA. That was up from 3:17 last season. Games are, on average, 14 minutes longer than in 2008. By comparison, this season’s NFL average is 3:07.
“I think it’s trending in the wrong direction, and it is a concern,” American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said.
Administrators are wary of turning off fans, especially young ones who crave faster action and represent future ticket buyers. They also are mindful of the risk of injury to fatigued players who are on the field longer and for more plays.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee expects to discuss the issue when it meets in February, secretary-rules editor Rogers Redding said.
“The 14-minute increase has been gradual” since 2008, he wrote in an email to The Associated Press, “but the cumulative effect has generated some concern among some stakeholders so that it is probably something that the committee will want to take a look at.”

MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James doesn’t have any apprehension for this homecoming.
There’s nothing to fear, no real worries about his safety, unlike what awaited him the last time he had one of these return games. Then again, this might not even classify as a homecoming — because, it turns out, Miami was never truly his home, just a place he called home for four years while playing with the Heat.
He came. He won. He left.
On Thursday, James returns to face the Heat, the team that turned him from a superstar to a two-time NBA champion superstar. And as he and the Cleveland Cavaliers prepare for what will certainly be an emotional Christmas visit, James said he’s expecting to be flooded with positive vibes.
“To say I haven’t thought about going back, I would be lying,” James said in Cleveland on Tuesday night after he and the Cavaliers beat Minnesota.
“It’s going to be great to be back in that building around those unbelievable fans and the memories will definitely come back, being a part of the organization for four years,” he said.
For their part, the Heat insist that they’re looking forward to the reunion.